ABSTRACT
There is evidence that as many as one in three schools are now failing to appoint a head when they first advertise and this may be indicative of a potential crisis in leadership recruitment in the United Kingdom (UK) (Shaw, 2006). The impact of a ‘retirement bulge’ has also been identified by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) (2002) and Hartle and Thomas (2004), who indicate that many middle-level as well as senior leaders will retire over the next few years. There has been suggestion that falling applications for middle-level and senior leadership posts may be further exacerbated by a growing feeling of disenchantment with leadership based on the standards and standardization agenda (Fink & Brayman, 2006; Hargreaves & Fink, 2006). A shortage of school leaders is not a phenomenon limited to the UK. Fink and Brayman (2006) report on the increasing evidence of a potential leadership crisis in many Western educational jurisdictions with the potential to undermine their school improvement initiatives. For example, shortages of school principals have been reported in parts of Canada (Williams, 2003), Australia (Gronn & Rawlings-Sanaei, 2003), New Zealand (Brooking et al., 2003) and the United States of America (Thomson et al., 2003). Nor is concern about preparing the next generation of leaders limited to the education sector. For example, succession planning has been identified as an important strategy in nurse leadership education (O’Connor, 2004).
